Israeli army says it intercepted ‘suspicious aerial’ object in southern Lebanon

By Said Amori

JERUSALEM (AA) - The Israeli army on Saturday said that it intercepted a “suspicious aerial” object in the Manara area in northern Israel, near the border with southern Lebanon.

“Air defense fighters intercepted a suspicious aerial object over the Manara area (north),” the army said in a statement.

"The army also detected a number of anti-tank missiles fired from Lebanon towards the Manara area,” it said. “The army responded to the sources of gunfire.”

“Air Force jets bombed a military building belonging to the Hezbollah group in southern Lebanon,” the statement said.

Earlier Saturday, sirens sounded in the city of Kiryat Shmona and the Manara area and other surrounding settlements in northern Israel, near the border with southern Lebanon.

The Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth spoke of concerns about the infiltration of drones from southern Lebanon toward the areas where the sirens sounded.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah said in a statement on Saturday that its fighters “launched a combined attack with drones and guided missiles on the military headquarters in the settlement of Manara, targeting the positions of Battalion 51 belonging to the Golani Brigade directly.”

The group said that its attack came in “support of our steadfast Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and in support of its brave and honorable resistance, in response to the enemy's attacks on resilient villages and civilian homes, especially the towns of Kafr Kila and Kafr Shuba.”

Earlier in the day, Lebanon’s National News Agency reported that the Israeli warplanes carried out two raids at dawn on the towns of Kafr Shuba and Shebaa in the district of Hasbaiyya, leading to the killing of a civilian and the destruction of two houses.

Tensions have escalated along Lebanon’s border with Israel since the Israeli army launched a deadly military offensive on the Gaza Strip following Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, amid an exchange of cross-border fire between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, in the deadliest clashes since the two sides had fought a full-scale war in 2006.

*Writing by Rania Abu Shamala